Bay 12 Games Forum

This thread. Read it. Live it. Love it.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=19237.msg190776;topicseen#msg190776

It has to meet a certain quality "score". Everything in the room will contribute to the overall quality, and higher quality furniture and engravings will add more.
I always put my noble quarters in a vein of magnetite, if I have one. It's worth a helluva lot once engraved

Kill every sapient being in the world and then settle dozens of outsider adventurers in the ruins so history can begin anew.

Is this possible? Can you settle in ruins? I have a world where the only surviving creatures are 200 or so assorted megabeasts, titans and night trolls so I'd very much like to try it.

Barring some kind of mod, yes. Perhaps DT would help you in this respect.

-Don't trust Hillocks at night; bogeymen can and will get you inside them, even though they are buildings.
I'm pretty sure this only applies if the hillocks are considered ruins, even if they have people in.

- Speaking of bowmen, if you don't like getting killed with arrows, wear iron or bronze chain armor.  It will reduce all hits from arrows/bolts to merely bruises.  This sadly will not prevent "you have been shot and killed", as no chain armor covers the head, but will dramatically improve your chances.  You can also of course mod arrows to make them not pierce iron armor (see this thread for details).  Steel armor (of all types) is also 100% effective against arrows, but is almost impossible (or maybe totally impossible?) to find.

I also recommend using a shield. A skilled shield user can block most ranged attacks from anyone below Elite status.

A few tips on beating Night Trolls.
First. If you're starting out as a Hero or Peasant, be very careful around them. For your first night troll fight, I recommend targetting the legs. Once it's on the ground, it's around the same speed as you.
Second, if you have a slashing weapon, focus on attacks that make it bleed heavily. Once you've done enough damage, keep away from it and wait for it to die of blood loss. Seriously. You can throw things at it if you like, but keep a safe distance They don't feel pain, so you can't knock them unconscious and then hit them for a while. The only time a night troll is considered harmless is when you've broken its spine. If it still has it, it can grab or bite you. See below for how to deal with that situation.
Thirdly. If a night troll grabs you, you're dead. Nine times out of ten, you're dead. If he bites you in any place that isn't your toes or ears, you're dead. it'll rip your limbs off, at which point you'll give in to pain or it'll catch and kill you. If it grabs you, it'll break your bones or throw you. Either of these actions will most likely cost you your life. If you get in this situation, you have but one chance. You get a single wild attack. It has to kill it, or sever the offending limb.

Oh, and night trolls hate each other too, as well as you. If you ever encounter more than one, consider letting them duke it out and then stepping in at a suitable moment.

If you haven't touched the init settings yet, you can probably knock it back up 20 frames or so by fiddling with them. However, I would recommend sticking with 80 dwarves. Those little bearded bastards are the single biggest drain on fps. If you allow your fortress to get to default pop cap (220 I think?), then it will become unplayable. You can do everything in the game with 80 dwarves, there's really no need for anymore. So set your population cap now, before it gets out of control.

...Or are they mutually exclusive? I've never seen, in my fortresses or others, a evil biome with both evil clouds/rain and reanimation. Is this just bad luck, or is it impossible?